darlodge

Sounds like the one I have here is about to go belly up and I need another on. Ideally about 10-20GB and I would prefer an IMB Travelstar (as that is what came out).

Any ideas? AUT direct have them for £69.99 but I am being cheap.


Darren

Beastie

iTrader: (2)

You could try here

http://www.laptopbits.co.uk/

bladerider

Darren, I can help you get what you're looking for. You have mail.

Stephen Read

What is it with these drives! Do they really get noiser or is it just our perception?

When you say it sounds like it's going belly up I take it you mean the constant noise it makes whilst in use?

I assume it's a bearing. Are you worried that it might just die?

The HDD in my 3yr old Dell is also so noisy that it's a pain to use the thing these days and I was wondering if a new drive would be worth shelling out for or if they can be serviced! Who knows, a spot of Mobil1 might do the trick

darlodge

bladerider - I just got your e-mail. I'll have a read

Stephen, I noticed when I removed the drive that it makes a clunking noise if I tip the drive upside down. That lead me to believe that the drive may fail. Upon further investigation thought, I looked at a spare IBM travelstar that we have in the office and it clicks in same way so it might be 'by design'. Makes me think about buying a replacment now

Darren

Beauregard

All the IBM drives click when you turn them on their side, nothing to worry about. If the drive is getting noisy in use go to IBM.com and download the DFT (Drive Fitness Test) Run the Advanced Test and repair any bad sectors. Be a little careful because it gives you the option to wipe the entire disk. Then make sure you have a good backup routine and keep using it until it fails.

zhastaph

Bladerider do you sell drives then?

I'm after a 60gb (or 80gb) drive for my laptop. I tried laptopbits, but the best suggestion I have with them is a remortgage, can you help?


BTW darlodge, I second Beauregard we got a whole stack of IBM 2.5" drives, and they all click when you tip them on their side

bladerider

zhastaph, the biggest I can get at the moment is a 40Gb.

zhastaph

That's wot I got and it's mega full

Oh dear, fanx anyways

bladerider

Just a thought about the click you hear when you turn the drive upsidedown. There are a number of disks in the casing with an read/write arm. Imagine an record turntable in an enclosed space. it looks quite similar. Now imagine a number of these stacked on top of each other. When you turn the drive upsidedown, the click you hear i probably the read/write head touching the next disk in the stack. Quite normal and within tolerance. Anyway the proper sound you should hear when the disk is reading data is a high pitched whine, not to dissimilar to the whine of a turbo. When writing to the disk it should be the whine plus a clicky sort of sound. The IBM travelstar can be quite noisy, I've found that the Hitachi is the quietest.
I can supply any size up to 40Gb

darlodge

Beauregard - many thanks mate, you just saved me about £60

Darren